


My Favorite Stone

by messymaelstrom



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pocket Monsters: Ruby & Sapphire & Emerald | Pokemon Ruby Sapphire Emerald Versions
Genre: M/M, originshipping
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-05
Updated: 2015-01-05
Packaged: 2018-03-05 12:57:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3120980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/messymaelstrom/pseuds/messymaelstrom
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steven is anxious about proposing to Wallace, and soothes his nerves through therapeutic caving before he asks The Question.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story is heavily rooted in my personal headcanons of these two: Wallace is genderfluid, and Steven is super ace

Drenched in the gently glowing light of a nearby electrically charged crystal, Steven Stone delicately chipped away at the rock surrounding what seemed to be the very top of a unique stone. He was positioned on his knees atop his beloved Metagross, and he had been here—in Chargestone Cave—for what surely amounted to several hours by now. He woke at four in the morning, and by 4:30 he realized he had no hope of returning to sleep, so he got ready for the day and donned the suit he would wear to the business meeting he was expected to attend with his father at precisely 8am, and left the hotel in Castelia City. Fortunately, his Skarmory crossed the distance between the city and his favorite cave in only fifteen minutes, so even if he lost track of time, there would still be a chance he could make it back without being too late to the meeting—which he would much rather skip entirely, honestly. He was the reluctant heir to Devon Co., but this was the type of life he chose when he passed the title of Champion onto Wallace. Arceus, he wished he were with zir right now.

In actuality, his constant thoughts of his partner were what had led him to come to Chargestone Cave in the first place. He hadn’t been lying when he wrote the note he left for his father, which read simply that he had left to “clear his head” before their meeting. There was no sense in acting like his mind wasn’t set on other things; on the plane ride across regions, his father had already noticed then that something was off, and Steven was well aware that he would be coaxed into talking about it eventually. He just hoped it wouldn’t be the same sort of talking he had been subjecting his poor Pokémon to for weeks now.

“I just don’t know how I’d ask,” Steven said softly, breaking the serene near-silence of the cave. Beneath him, his Metagross rolled their eyes and grunted in a slightly irritated tone. For a moment, Steven took his gaze away from the wall to give his Pokémon a stern (but unseen) look. “I know you’ve heard me say that a thousand times, believe me, I _know_. I’d stop saying it if I had figured something out.” Cobalt grunted at their trainer again as Steven returned to trying to get the stone (which really did look like a Mega Stone) to come loose from the cave’s wall.

“Is that irritation or are you trying to tell me to compare Wallace to a stone?” Steven asked in response. When his Metagross became silent, he sighed softly. “If I thought that was the right way to do this, I wouldn’t have spent all of these hours secluded in caves—I mean, I probably would have,” he admitted with a wave of the hand, “but it would have been just for the stones, like before. Instead I’m here trying to figure out how to propose to my partner because I don’t think it’s fair for my proposal speech to compare zir to a rock.” Cobalt offered another soft reply.

He fell silent for a moment as he finally managed to wedge the small stone free from the wall; his full attention turned to the small piece as he delicately wiped off pieces of rock and dirt that still clung to it. When the grime was mostly cleared, he could see with certainty that it was a Mega Stone, though he couldn’t immediately identify which one it was. He held it up towards the nearest glowing crystal and studied the flash of color in its center—a fine blend of blue, brown, and teal. Upon this further inspection, he determined that it looked like Blastoisinite. Arceus, that would have been a convenient find a few weeks ago. It would have looked amazing set on an engagement ring…

Steven sighed softly and readjusted his position on his Metagross, stretching his legs and crossing his ankles as he turned his back to the cave wall. He placed the Mega Stone in his pack which held the entire collection of stones he had found so far in Unova, which was already nearly full. Arceus, and this was only the third day of a full week’s trip, too. “Do you think that’s what I should do? Present the ring and give a spiel about how Wallace’s beauty can’t be compared to stones? I mean that’s better than the previous suggestion… But I’m sure you’ve listened to me enough to know I don’t like that much either.”

After a few more moments of contemplating, Steven shoved himself off of his Metagross and landed elegantly on his feet. The landing might have been graceful, but the ten pounds of precious gems in his satchel slamming hard into his side certainly was not.  He raised a hand to cover his mouth as he grimaced in pain as the other fell to his side to coax it out of its bouts of sharp pain. Thank Arceus no one was around to see that!

Eventually, his hands left their places and reconvened in front of his chest as he crossed his arms. “Maybe I’ll figure out some sort of legitimate, romancy spiel that _doesn’t_ involve rocks…,” Steven scoffed the moment the words left his lips. “Psh, right. Can you imagine? Me, avoiding mentioning stones in conversation. That would be a first.” He smiled broadly at his Metagross and set a hand on their head, moving it in a gentle circular motion. “Cobalt, you’re the best for putting up with all my ranting. I really appreciate it.”

After a moment of petting the Metagross, Steven casually pulled out his PokéNav Plus from his pocket and visibly jolted when he saw the timestamp on its display. Oh, Arceus help him. He was _so_ late. “Sorry, Cobalt, we’ve gotta run. I’m going to be in so much trouble…” Steven half chuckled as he reached for the Metagross’s pokéball. Cobalt grunted curiously at him. “It’s 9:30 already! Maybe by the time I get back to Castelia, I will have missed the meeting altogether…” He paused for a moment before muttering to himself, “I can’t believe dad wouldn’t call me…” His anxiety all but rushed back to him as he called Cobalt back to their pokéball and took off running toward the entrance of the cave. It was by pure fortune that he managed to evade encountering any wild Pokémon. As he took the first step outside of the cave, he summoned his Skarmory and nearly leaped on his back, ushering him into the sky as they began the trek back to Castelia City.

As they soared over the clouds, Steven found his mind racing in panic as it suddenly occurred to him that there was a good chance he was overthinking his proposal speech. He forced the thought out of his mind and opened his PokéNav Plus only to see the combined fifteen missed messages and calls from his father. Arceus, he should have known that the energy in Chargestone Cave was going to interfere with incoming messages! Hopefully Joseph Stone was in a forgiving mood.


	2. Chapter 2

Steven cautiously hopped off his Skarmory once she set her feet on the ground; he took a few moments to pet the bird’s head and thank her for the smooth ride before he called her back to her pokéball and calmly walked through the front door of the house he shared with Wallace. He locked the door behind him and walked through the dark living room, sighing softly as he flicked on the dining room light and caught a glimpse of the time from the clock on the wall; he was home nearly three hours later than he had wanted to be.

His attention immediately turned to a green sticky note on the corner of the dining room table, which was covered with flawless blue cursive. Even if it were without words, the note itself conveyed important information. Early in their relationship, Steven had found it difficult to keep up with Wallace’s fluctuating gender identity, and became self-conscious and upset with himself when he would often discover that he had spent the entire day accidentally misgendering his partner. Fortunately, Wallace’s ingenuity led zir to come up with a convenient solution: there were now three sets of different colored sticky notes in one of the kitchen drawers; each displayed a different set of pronouns along with a unique color. It took only a few weeks for Steven to memorize what pronouns were associated with each color: green for zie/zir, orange for he/him, and white for she/her. Every morning like clockwork, Wallace would place one of the appropriate notes on the table to direct Steven’s language. On this particular night, the note indicated that he should continue to use the neutral pronouns.

Steven carefully placed his pack holding all of the interesting specimens he had found in the caves of Unova (by the end of the third day he had run out of room and had to force himself to stop caving—it was torture) on the floor close to the wall. He shed the backpack from his shoulders and placed it gently beside the other bag before he took the note from the table:

 

Dearest Steven:

I tried waiting up for you, but it’s nearly 10 now and frankly, I’m exhausted. So I’m going to bed. Sorry, love! You’ll have to tell me all about your trip tomorrow! I hope your dad didn’t chew you out too badly for being late to your Big Important Meeting. But then again, maybe it’ll help you resist the siren song of Chargestone Cave (yeah right! :) ). Good night, dear. Feel free to kick Bentley out of bed when you get here. I love you!

P.S. Thank you for remembering to tell me you were going to be late!

 

A small smile overtook Steven’s expression as he set the note back on the table and took the nearby pen to write a simple reply: “thank you for being so understanding.” At least his excuse had gone over without igniting suspicion. He was scolded the day of the incident, but only today had he finally decided to ask his dad for advice about what to say when proposing. Their conversation was not over by the time they returned to Rustboro City, and Steven intended to see the topic through to its end. The time ended up being crucial; at least now he finally had a plan, and a solid idea of what he will say in conjunction to the Big Question. Now all he needed to do was work up his nerve.

A small sound came from behind him, and Steven whirled around to find Wallace’s Luvdisc in her large, comfortable indoor tank, staring at him curiously. She called to him again with a quiet questioning “Luvdisc?” as she began pacing the front of the tank to demand some of his attention.

Steven quietly walked over to her tank and placed a hand in her tank; Lizzie darted towards it and rubbed against his skin, demanding that he pet her. With a small smile, he complied, moving his fingers lightly over her heart scales. “Sorry for waking you up, Lizzie,” he whispered gently to her. After several minutes, the Luvdisc seemed satisfied with the attention and moved away from his hand to disappear into the absolute jungle of aquatic plants Wallace had made in her tank.

He pulled his hand out of the tank and thoughtlessly wiped the excess water on his suitcoat and walked into the adjacent living room. Operating only by the light from the dining room, he opened one of the many display cases that held the most precious of his gems. He carefully moved a gem (a piece of Tanzanite he had extracted from Jhoto’s Ice Path) from its stand and moved the stand to the side reveal the empty space beneath it. He took a gorgeous ring from the inner pocket of his suit coat and placed it on the bottom of the case before covering it with the stand and making the arrangement look exactly as it was before he opened the case. He had learned that generally, Wallace did not touch his rock displays, and trusted that the ring would be safe there.

Satisfied with the hiding place, Steven walked back into the dining room and picked up his two bags and trudged down the hallway and entered the bathroom to change. He stripped out of his suit, and exchanged it for his favorite pair of fuzzy pajama bottoms covered with Beldum. He stifled a yawn as he opened the bedroom door.

With the small amount of light pouring into the bedroom from the hallway, Steven could see the fifty pounds of Wallace’s Whiscash occupying what was usually his side of the bed; Wallace was curled around Bentley, with an arm draped over the whiskered fish. Fortunately, there was enough room for Steven to squeeze into bed behind Wallace. Trying to move that Whiscash was like trying to move a mountain—a very grumpy, growly, stubborn mountain that always woke up Wallace when he protested moving the few feet to the foot of the bed where the three of them could all comfortably share the bed. It was a scenario Steven had grown accustomed to walking into—when he wasn’t around, Wallace coaxed Bentley to sleep beside zir instead of in the backyard pool. It made zir feel safer to know that zie was beside a Whiscash that would throw a massive tantrum if anyone but Steven woke him.

As if on cue, Bentley opened his eyes and lifted his head slightly to glance at Steven standing in the doorway. While it certainly wasn’t a tantrum, Bentley let out a low grunt in acknowledgement, as though it were permission to pass the threshold. Steven turned off the hall light and made his way to the bed, while Bentley growled softly over the possibility that Steven might try to reclaim his half of the bed.

“Stop it,” Steven whispered harshly at the fish, “I’m not going to make you move” He proved his point by slipping under the covers beside Wallace, leaving the Whiscash be. Bentley was appeased by this choice and the room fell quiet as Steven wrapped his arms around Wallace’s waist, just in time to feel zir stir. Well…he tried.

“Steven?” Wallace’s groggy voice called to him.

“I’m sorry, dear,” Steven replied, “I didn’t mean to wake you.” Wallace was such a light sleeper that it was nearly impossible to avoid waking zir, _especially_ when Bentley occupied part of the bed.

Wallace only hummed in acknowledgement as zie turned over to face Steven. Zie opened zir eyes slightly, just long enough to press zir lips against Steven’s in a welcoming kiss. Pulling away, Wallace buried zir face against his chest and sighed against his bare skin, “How was your trip?” zie muttered.

“It went well overall,” Steven whispered back, “How about I tell you about it tomorrow, though? It’s late, and you should get back to sleep, love.”

Wallace hummed at him again, “done…” Zie wrapped zir arms around Steven and smiled against his chest, “I love you, dearest.”

Steven smiled at Wallace and kissed the top of zir head, “I love you too.” It took no time at all for Wallace to still and drift back to sleep, leaving Steven alone with his thoughts and the intense, judgmental glare of a Whiscash who lost his cuddle-buddy. Fortunately, Bentley did not make a fuss, opting only to pout at Steven for a while before he inched closer to Wallace’s back and settled in there. At least he wasn’t going to actively try to make Steven fall out of bed (which had happened more times than his pride would allow him to remember). As Steven closed his eyes, he wondered at what point in his life he had decided to bow to the whims of a grumpy Whiscash.

 

\----

 

Wallace walked past the orange sticky note he had left on the dining room table earlier that morning, nearly twelve hours ago. Between his duties at the Pokémon League (including the five challengers he had today) and his time acting as a contest coordinator, it wasn’t unusual for him to work long hours. He glanced at his PokéNav Plus and the topmost message from Steven, which was a request to  join him in the backyard for champagne. He thrived when he could come home to see Steven; the four days since he had returned from Unova had been wonderful thus far. He paused to take off the champion’s cape and carefully draped it over one of the chairs alongside his hat. He fumbled with the ponytail he had put his long hair into earlier that day, and combed through the aqua strands with his fingers in a feeble attempt to straighten out the wave that was left behind by the tie.

He stepped through the sliding glass door and found Steven patiently sitting cross-legged on the swinging bench that rested a few yards from a corner of the pool. He would have been sitting in the dark, were it not for the numerous strands of white string lights he had meticulously strung through the upper support and canopy of the bench. Wallace regarded the setup curiously as he approached his partner. Steven got to his feet and opened his arms for a hug, which Wallace graciously accepted. He leaned down to give Steven a soft kiss. When he pulled away, he was thrown off by the look on Steven’s face; he seemed positively love-struck—more so than usual. Disregarding the thought for a moment, he asked, “How was your day off? I see you’ve spent it thinking up a way to woo me.” Wallace chuckled as he watched Steven’s face turn red; he turned towards the pool and released all five of his Pokémon into the clear water of the pool.

Steven wrapped an arm around his waist, “What, am I not allowed to be romantic?”

“I was promised champagne,” Wallace retorted bluntly, deciding he would much rather avoid that line of conversation as he watched his Pokémon swim off to different areas of the pool; only Lizzie remained in place to observe them. True to form, that Luvdisc was a sucker for romance.

“Yes, I know,” Steven answered with a grin, “and don’t worry, I wasn’t lying.” He took one of Wallace’s hands in both of his own and led him to the bench.

Wallace took a seat and once again regarded Steven’s handiwork, “Can I ask what all this is about?”

Steven handed him a glass of champagne and answered, “they put out less light pollution than the porch light and we can still see some stars with these on.” He took his own glass and sat down beside Wallace, lacing the fingers of their free hands together.

“I meant the night,” Wallace replied flatly, “C’mon, the getup is suspicious. Did I forget that today is important?”

“Oh. No, today is just a normal Friday.” Steven said as he nuzzled Wallace’s shoulder before kissing his cheek. “I thought it would be nice to relax and drink together, since this is the really first night we’ve had available in two weeks. I missed spending time with you, and this seemed like an appropriate solution.”

 “Fair enough,” came Wallace’s simple answer as he crossed his legs and took a generous drink of the champagne.

They fell into comfortable silence and sipped their champagne for a few minutes before Steven broke it to ask, “Do you remember our first date?”

“Of course I do! We went to the beach outside of Lilycove, and by midnight we decided it didn’t feel any different from what we’d normally do, so we started kissing under the stars. If I remember right, we stayed out there until two in the morning and I’m pretty sure you slept through your alarm the next day.”

“I did, but it was worth the trouble I got into for it.”

“Do you remember when you finally met Master Juan?” Wallace asked with a smile on his lips as he took another sip of champagne.

“More like Papa Juan,” Steven commented over the rim of his glass. “I was convinced he didn’t like me and he was going to make his Kingdra attack me. At least until he relaxed enough to start telling stories about you when you were younger.” He paused for a moment, remembering his most recent interaction with Wallace’s overprotective father-figure, when he decided it would be appropriate to talk to Juan about marrying his mentee. While he got Juan’s approval, it came with a long-winded lecture (‘don’t you dare break Wallace’s heart, boy’). “I still don’t know if he likes me.”

“I’m not sure that liking people who interact with me is something he _can_ do,” Wallace replied with a chuckle, “but he seems to tolerate you, at least, and that is a victory in of itself—trust me.”

Steven laughed nervously at that remark and made a swift move to change the subject after he drank down some more champagne, “Did you have any reservations, that day I asked you out?"

Wallace scoffed, "no. When it happened I was just caught off guard. I mean..." he sighed and set his chin on the top of Steven’s head, "I had been pining for you romantically for what had to have been months by that point. But I didn’t act on it, because you weren't exactly responsive to _any_ of my flirting." He kissed the top of Steven's hair before moving his face away.  

Steven smiled to himself and kissed Wallace's neck. "I was so nervous. I mean, you’re cool and collected, all the time. Always official and in control; it always seemed to me like you were untouchable. I thought for sure you weren’t interested.”

"Then, my dear, you were as oblivious as my Bentley," Wallace smiled and gently placed his hand on Steven's cheek and gave him a soft kiss on the lips as Steven turned red from embarrassment. "But don't worry, things have worked out exceptionally well since we established this wonderful romance, don’t you think?"

"Absolutely,” Steven replied with a grin, before his expression turned slightly more serious, “But there's something I’ve been wondering. Do you think we'll always be an item like this?"

"I see no reason to think we'd ever break up, if that's what you're asking," Wallace answered before he downed the rest of his champagne and set the empty glass on the ground beside him. "Although, I have some hope that we wont forever be at this particular stage, you know? I’d like to be husbands someday. Maybe when our lives have settled down a bit more…"    

Steven lifted his head from Wallace's shoulder. Well then. Obviously, the universe wants him to propose tonight. He set his still half full glass of champagne on the small table beside him before he turned toward Wallace and took both of his hands. Wallace gazed back at him with his brows furrowed with curiosity, and opened his mouth to ask a question, but Steven interrupted, "Well, actually… I've been thinking about that same thing lately...." he took a hand from Wallace's and brushed his bangs out of his face; his hand lingered on his cheek.

"We've had three years together so far, and they've undoubtedly been the best years of my life so far. I know that we haven’t exactly had a lot of time for each other, what with our work… but the way things are now, are precisely how I hope my life continues. Coming home to you at night is an absolute blessing, and I cherish any time we can steal to be together. The transition from friendship to romance seemed like such a smooth, logical step, and now I can’t imagine things being any other way. We get along so well, and there isn’t a moment that passes that I don’t think about how fortunate I am to be your partner.” Steven paused to take in a deep breath, and his next words escaped him like a sigh, “I love you so much, Wallace.”

Before Wallace had a chance to return the sentiment, Steven moved from his side and sank to a knee on the ground in front of him. “Arceus, you’re not…,” he muttered to himself as the implication of the evening of reminiscing and Steven’s spiel finally caught up with him. The tears were already starting to well up in his eyes, knowing full well what was about to happen now that Steven was kneeling in front of him. .

Steven tenderly held Wallace’s left hand and removed a ring from the inner pocket of his suit coat with his free hand. Wallace gasped audibly and brought his free hand to cover his mouth when the ring became bathed in light. The band was made of white gold, and had three gemstones at the top. He recognized the deep azure of the centerpiece as the core of a water stone. Beside it were two pieces of what he presumed were some sort of opal (an assumption he made only because the overwhelming majority of the finds Steven showed him were opals), each one contained stunning patches of turquoise, green, yellow, and orange.

“Wallace, will you be my favorite Stone?” Steven grimaced internally at those words. For the love of Arceus, did he really just propose using a _pun_? So much for those weeks of meditation…

 Wallace opened his mouth to answer, but all that came out was a choked sob that quickly turned into a soft chuckle. His hand was partially hiding the enormous grin that had taken over his face. Tears were already quietly making their way down Wallace’s cheeks. After a moment, he drew in a deep breath and managed to use words once again, “Was that a pun?” Steven’s eyes shifted about for a moment before he smiled innocently in response. “Arceus, you’re too much…” Wallace sniffed and smiled broadly as he moved his hand from his face, “Yes, of course I’ll marry you, Steven!”

A large smile broke out across Steven’s face as he gently slid the band onto Wallace’s ring finger. With that, he rose to his feet and gently cupped Wallace’s face with both of his hands and kissed his cheeks as he wiped away his joyful tears. Wallace threw his arms around Steven’s neck, and their lips met for a deep kiss. As they pulled away, Steven pressed their foreheads together, “I love you.”

“I love you too, darling,” Wallace replied earnestly. “You’ve made me so happy tonight.”

Steven smiled at him, “I hope I can continue making you happy for the rest of our days.” He pressed their lips together for a long, passionate kiss—the first of many more to come. 


End file.
